tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-113758172014-10-02T02:06:50.396-04:00libertopiaphilosophy, politics, theology, etcetera...Roberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10344357253669899950noreply@blogger.comBlogger314125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11375817.post-50527440325306637732009-12-15T17:53:00.042-05:002009-12-15T20:33:21.240-05:00Intersubjective MoralityI periodically revisit some of the questions raised by meta-ethics in an attempt to better understand morality per se. This is one such occasion. Suppose that there is general agreement that by "objective" we mean "existing independent of thought or an observer as part of reality" and by "subjective" we mean "existing in the mind; belonging to the thinking subject rather than to the object of Roberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10344357253669899950noreply@blogger.com36tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11375817.post-77429067477671073562009-09-11T09:11:00.001-04:002009-09-11T09:13:04.714-04:00Political MythologyNot unlike “free lunches” and “honest politicians” and “a right to healthcare”…the Senate Filibuster is apparently a myth.tip: Megan McArdleRoberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10344357253669899950noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11375817.post-68735443680104640082009-09-10T21:01:00.002-04:002009-09-10T21:03:51.633-04:00Recommended ReadingMy seventeen-year-old son turned me on to a fascinating book entitled House of Leaves. This is the most original book I've ever read (am reading). It's a visceral meta-novel: the unorthodox typography and constantly shifting narrative - which echoes the plot - causes the story to be almost...experienced.Roberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10344357253669899950noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11375817.post-83839833087619778202009-08-15T12:22:00.020-04:002009-08-15T22:46:19.097-04:00Foreknowledge and Free WillI recently posed the following question: Assuming for argument's sake that divine foreknowledge exists, does it meaningfully preclude the free exercise of the will? If not, why?. The responses were thoughtful and reflect a deeply-held intuition, namely that free will is a given, divine omniscience notwithstanding. The impetus for the question was my reading of an article in the Stanford Roberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10344357253669899950noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11375817.post-70905863090852922322009-08-13T12:05:00.001-04:002009-08-13T12:06:45.598-04:00What makes brains conscious?Well, no one really knows, but this video sheds light.Roberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10344357253669899950noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11375817.post-41066893799165433422009-07-16T14:23:00.001-04:002009-07-16T14:25:49.860-04:00All work and no play......makes libertopia a dull blog.Roberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10344357253669899950noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11375817.post-1656615195270726112009-07-03T13:16:00.001-04:002009-07-03T13:18:54.521-04:00Fantastic FurnitureAlice, I knew you were talented, but your latest creations are phenomenal. Your style aligns perfectly with my personal taste: my house has sort of a minimalist, naturalistic theme with lots of stained wood and earth tones. I might just be your next customer. I'm tempted to say that you're 'gifted'...but that would presuppose a giver-of-gifts. Regardless, I'm awed by your craftsmanship.Roberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10344357253669899950noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11375817.post-29170890605059429732009-06-21T15:57:00.000-04:002009-06-21T15:58:22.292-04:00A taste of Wittgenstein..."Philosophy is not a theory but an activity.""Nothing is so difficult as not deceiving oneself." "Logic is not a body of doctrine, but a mirror-image of the world. Logic is transcendental."Roberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10344357253669899950noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11375817.post-16794635675596072752009-06-17T12:20:00.005-04:002009-06-17T12:28:23.921-04:00Explaining and Appraising Moral IntuitionI’m fascinated with moral philosophy, and lately it’s really been at the forefront of my thinking. Just recently, on my neglected facebook page, Chris called to my attention a discussion about the basis of our moral judgments, from the point of view of evolutionary psychology. I replied that I thought that there were some problems with the reasoning, but haven’t yet made the time to explore thoseRoberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10344357253669899950noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11375817.post-29388067417399556182009-06-02T13:58:00.004-04:002009-06-02T14:07:03.582-04:00Presidential RacistsThe very concept of race is incoherent: sure, there are superficial differences that can be emphasized among our species, but there are also innumerable shades of gray between black and white…a point which Kenan Malik makes quite eloquently.While I may disagree with President Obama’s political philosophy—specifically on the economy and the precise size, scope, and role of government—I’m delightedRoberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10344357253669899950noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11375817.post-65945270056395700292009-06-02T09:01:00.004-04:002009-06-02T09:03:41.021-04:00In full BloomAt the risk of overexposing Paul Bloom, I thought I would share this lovely conversation between…Bloom, Yale psych prof, author, etc. and Yale colleague, Tamar Szabo Gendler, a philosopher, Chair of the Cognitive Science Program, etc.One topic that I found particularly interesting was concerned with epistemology. Specifically, Gendler proposed a new word, “alief”, to describe ideas and concepts Roberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10344357253669899950noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11375817.post-21536549594905393642009-06-01T10:39:00.011-04:002009-06-01T10:53:03.275-04:00Answering AliceAlice asked if I think about the existence of God in the same way that Anselm did, and I’m more than happy to respond, as this involves two of my favorite interests: theology and philosophy. I think that Anselm’s ontological argument for the existence of God is interesting—if only because it was a more or less novel attempt to use reason and logic to ‘prove’ the existence of God. That said, Roberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10344357253669899950noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11375817.post-87338252553072067772009-05-20T23:36:00.000-04:002009-05-20T23:37:37.889-04:00words to live by"When the intensity of emotional conviction subsides, a man who is in the habit of reasoning will search for logical grounds in favour of the belief which he finds in himself." -Bertrand RussellRoberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10344357253669899950noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11375817.post-19763920743019510982009-05-19T14:43:00.006-04:002009-05-19T17:02:18.309-04:00The Origin of Species…of theismThese are a few of my favorite things: philosophy, theology, epistemology, psychology…and the supposed evolutionary origins of each.Michael Murray, a philosopher at the Templeton Foundation, is a self-described theist who subscribes, more or less, to the idea that everyone is born with a ‘god-shaped void’ which becomes occupied by God when one believes. Paul Bloom, a professor of psychology and Roberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10344357253669899950noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11375817.post-53165982951470031342009-05-13T20:29:00.003-04:002009-05-13T20:38:40.391-04:00The other LibertopiaRoberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10344357253669899950noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11375817.post-77319359795314236412009-05-12T13:38:00.001-04:002009-05-12T13:39:33.481-04:00slave-making antsI’m a little more than half-way through Darwin’s Origin of Species and I came across, in the chapter on instinct, a fascinating account of slave-making ants. Who knew?I’ll forego a feeble attempt to do justice to Darwin’s description of this phenomenon and just quote him instead:This remarkable instinct was first discovered in the Formica (Polyerges) rufescens by Pierre Huber, a better observer Roberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10344357253669899950noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11375817.post-84317014188003775272009-05-07T21:55:00.038-04:002009-05-07T22:58:16.694-04:00Theological Triad: Part IIAs I mentioned in Part I, this installment will focus on epistemology, which is a branch of philosophy that is concerned primarily with various theories of knowledge. More specifically, epistemologists try to get at the nature of justified true belief (JTB), which many—but not all—in the field take to be synonymous with knowledge.But there’s a notable challenge to the idea that JTB is sufficient Roberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10344357253669899950noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11375817.post-35206052607701883842009-05-06T23:37:00.004-04:002009-05-07T08:37:52.279-04:00Moral IntuitionOccasionally I feel the need to revisit (and refine) my thoughts on morality—or ‘moral intuition’. My last attempt was this post, in which I wrote:• Moral Equivalence: the position that, in a conflict, there can be no “hierarchy” with respect to the ethical nature of the actions of the parties involved.• Moral Relativism: the position that there are “no absolutes” with respect to moral Roberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10344357253669899950noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11375817.post-63305875800507657522009-05-01T23:49:00.002-04:002009-05-01T23:53:30.767-04:00Capitalism for Anti-CapitalistsThis discussion—occasioned by this book, which I can’t wait to read—is a must for those on the far right, the far left, and everyone else with an operable cognitive faculty…not to put too fine a point on it. Roberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10344357253669899950noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11375817.post-80940285324600144042009-04-23T08:49:00.001-04:002009-04-23T08:57:06.505-04:00On ‘pure libertopia’Julian Sanchez:In a pure libertopia, the Market will be so efficient as to dispense with the need for human intermediaries, like a Lovecraftian Elder God who casts aside the husk of an avatar to bestow the touch of madness with its own deathless tentacles.Roberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10344357253669899950noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11375817.post-3100192995932681622009-04-16T12:15:00.003-04:002009-04-16T12:25:33.873-04:00Is religious intuition an adaptation?This is an insightful dialogue about the cognitive science of religion; or, the cognitive architecture that may underlie intuitions regarding (supposed) supernatural phenomena.Roberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10344357253669899950noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11375817.post-43923240510545071342009-03-12T22:03:00.001-04:002009-03-12T22:05:36.867-04:00Recent ReadingSo, by way of adding to my chronicle, I just finished Synaptic Self by Joseph LeDoux. It deftly deals with the extremely complex nature of mental mechanisms, ranging from neurophysiology to bio-chemistry, from psychology to psychotropic drugs.Since there are already several good reviews, I’ll just quote a passage from the last chapter, which touches on some of the topics covered throughout—to Roberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10344357253669899950noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11375817.post-89720661261074882312009-02-21T11:51:00.026-05:002009-02-21T12:47:41.589-05:00Theological Triad: Part IThe results of a 2006 survey suggest that, “while most U.S. adults believe in God, only 58 percent are "absolutely certain". However, in an identical survey conducted just three years earlier, “79 percent of adults said they believed in God and 66 percent said they were absolutely certain that there is a God. In this new survey, those numbers have declined to 73 percent and 58 percent Roberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10344357253669899950noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11375817.post-68152753005963823702009-02-12T21:45:00.006-05:002009-02-12T21:54:35.799-05:00You can’t say that on televisionLadies and gentlemen, President F'n Obama.h/t: Chris WilsonRoberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10344357253669899950noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11375817.post-57378834032789045092009-02-11T01:53:00.004-05:002009-02-11T02:00:17.202-05:00On the other hand……to counter the mind-numbing post below, try this IQ-enhancing Intuitive Explanation of Bayes' Theorem.For more of Eliezer Yudkowsky’s insightful and enlightened musings on all things rational, check out Overcoming Bias.Roberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10344357253669899950noreply@blogger.com0